Holmgren: “It’s unfair” to criticize Browns on McCoy’s concussion

Posted by Michael David Smith on December 14, 2011, 12:25 PM EDT

AP

Browns President Mike Holmgren attempted to, in his words, “Set the record as straight as I can” in a press conference today, after the team has been widely criticized for its handling of quarterback Colt McCoy’s concussion on Thursday.

Specifically, Holmgren stood up for the Browns’ medical staff and head coach Pat Shurmur for allowing McCoy to return to the game following a head-to-head hit from Steelers linebacker James Harrison.

“Our medical staff and our training staff, they are the best in football,” Holmgren said. “These guys are really good. So one of the things that is troubling to me in this whole process is that they’re getting slammed a bit, along with the head coach. . . . And it’s unfair.”

Holmgren said the Browns’ medical staff hadn’t seen the Harrison-on-McCoy hit and only went out to check on McCoy when they were alerted to it by others on the sideline. Holmgren said that when the medical staff reached McCoy, he was lucid and complaining only about pain in his hand, not his head.

“When the injury took place on the field, at that time the question came up, did the doctors see the impact on the play? They did not. And our trainers did not,” Holmgren said. “They were all working, as is typical in a game. They were working on other injured players in the bench area or behind players. So they did not see the play. They heard the crowd reaction, someone said, ‘Colt’s down.'”

Holmgren said that the Browns have met with league and union officials about the incident. He said the franchise will not be facing any type of discipline for its handling of McCoy, but that the Browns do want to make sure they’re doing everything that the league and the union think they can and should do about concussions.

“We’ve met with the NFL as well as the union doctors,” Holmgren said. “There’s a lot of speculation, there’s a lot of things that have been written and said, and the reason that we waited as an organization to have this meeting is that we had to have those other meetings before. . . . I don’t expect anything to happen in a punitive manner, but it was a good meeting.”

Six days after McCoy’s concussion, Holmgren said he hasn’t spoken with McCoy but is optimistic that McCoy will be OK.

“He still has a headache,” Holmgren said. “But other than that, from what they tell me, he’s good.”

So when you say the Browns’ handling of the situation has been “widely criticized” you mean “criticized by profootballtalk because we have an unnatural interest in head injuries and feel like it’s our job to be the injury report police” right?

Watching his press conference right now. He’s basically giving lip service, not directly answering questions, and saying some really dumb things like (and I’m paraphrasing) “We hired a very competent young coach who will be here for years.”

If he’s still having headaches 4 days after the fact then no, Mike, he is decidedly NOT good.

Even that choice of words – “he has a headache” – is almost dismissive of the problem. Holmgren is old school, I get it. But this ain’t the 80’s or 90’s any more. Organizations need to take these injuries more seriously. I’m not going to blame people for things they didn’t know 20 years ago, but now we do know. Everyone knows. And the Browns should be held accountable for failing to act when they DO know better.

I hear what Holmgren is saying, but I still think it would have been prudent to allow Seneca Wallace to continue the drive toward the Steeler goal line since he had just completed a pass to Evan Moore down to the Pittsburgh 7 yard line. Why rush McCoy back into the game? Two handoffs to Peyton Hillis and/or a jump ball pass to Moore in the end zone would have been preferable to hoping that McCoy was alright. As we saw, he wasn’t, as he threw a back-breaking interception just two plays after coming back in. This has more to do with being smart and playing situational football than it does with the legal implications of their decision.

As head coach in Seattle Holmgren defended and protected his players (employees) to a fault. Guys like Jerramy Stevens and Korne Robinson were given 4th and 5th chances and he defended them when the press and fans were criticizing his hand-picked players.

One has to wonder if he isn’t doing the same thing here. That is, protecting his hand-picked employees from outside scrutiny.

“Our medical and training staff are the best … just don’t inspect our facilities.”

Anyway it’s not the Browns handling that’s broken, folks. As repeatedly pointed out on this site, it’s the rules, and the lack of requirement for independent neurologists. Maybe this will make the league wake up and change the procedures and whose hands it is in. Can’t leave it in the hands of players who are worried about their next paycheck or doctors whose paychecks are supplied by the team.

Holmgren’s right. Trainers just aren’t sitting around like the casual fan watching games. They are fixing up players for the game, getting cramps out, rubbing hamstrings and such. The heard the “OOOhhhh” and were told Colt’s down. Colt complained about his hand hurting so they checked out his hand.

Too much has been made of this. Personally, I saw that Colt was “out of it” from his eyes when he got back in the game after Seneca’s completetion, but I have the benefit of HDTV and multiple camera angles that focus on a number of things.

In the end, if a guy is blown up and grabs his ankle then trainers are going to tend to his ankle. What Holmgren says sounds believable.

So the coaches that were standing right next to the medical staff who evaluated Colt’s hand, never at one point mentioned to them “Hey, Colt just got rocked in a helmet to helmet hit, check for a concussion.”

Why do you have to see the hit to determine whether or not he had a concussion??? Should have been able to determine that he needed to be tested within about 10 seconds after seeing him on the field. McCoy was lying prone when the trainers got to him and clearly did not look “lucid” when they sat him up. Maybe they need to buy the photo at NFL.com.

Lame excuse, Holmgren. Almost as bad as your criticism of the refs after Super Bowl XL.

This just proves that the Browns aren’t just an awful team on the field. They’re an awful organization from top to bottom and one that actually endangers its players.

So no member of the medical staff or a trainer saw the hit? Not even when it was replayed 25 times on the scoreboards? There’s around a 100 people on the sideline, I am sure 1 of them should’ve said something.

Maybe the league should take over all the medical staffs of all the teams and have one of their “officials” upstairs review each play for 15 minutes to ensure the safety of each collision. Then no one can accuse the coaches in situations like this. Maybe Roger Goodell should just have a YES/NO switch in his office to make all the decisions in all the games every week. There should be a button he can push that causes a flag to fly when he sees a penalty too.

even if the trainers didn’t see the hit they saw mccoy thrashing around on the field. and the booth saw the replay. and furthermore if they didn’t see the hit, that’s all the more reason to administer concussion test and be cautious. i hate to say it, but i think holmgren is lying.

You’re joking right Mike Holmgren? Unfair criticisim? Go back through the posts here and see what was said about how the Steelers handled Troys and Hines concussions. They were soundly criticized by the mediators on this site as if they were doing harm to their players, And the Steelersd didnt even let their players back in the game!! Yet your team let Colt return to the game one play later and you think you are being treated unfairly by the press? Give me a break. The steelers did the right thing and they got way worse criticism than the Brownies did. Even if the trainers didnt see the hit, the head coach did and he should have informed the trainers. Or hey look at the jumbotron, im sure it was replayed several times.

Players do not lay on the ground on their back from a hit to the hand. When the trainers were sent out, they should have known it was because of a hit to the head. Shurmer should have also questioned if he was checked for a concussion after the hit when they said he was ok so quickly…

I think many of you need to listen to the whole press conference. Holmgren didnt say “we did nothing wrong.” He said the training staff SHOULD have been made aware, but no one did. From the coaches, to the observer up in the booth, to the players on the field with Colt afterwards. It wasnt until after the game and in the locker room did Colt start complaining of any concussion symptoms, at which time Joe Thomas told him to go see the doctors. He went on to say a more reliable system needs to be in place to make sure those who need to know are made aware.

godofwine330 says:
Too much has been made of this. Personally, I saw that Colt was “out of it” from his eyes when he got back in the game after Seneca’s completetion, but I have the benefit of HDTV and multiple camera angles that focus on a number of things.
======================
So let me understand: a staff of trained medical professionals was examining McCoy in person on the sideline, yet you were better equipped to diagnose his concussion from your couch thanks to your trusty HDTV? Am I getting that right?

I’m not a Browns fan so I have no motive for defending them, but why is no one complaining about the officials on this? A few weeks ago they were instructed by the league that if they say a player with concussion like symptoms they were to have them removed and examined right? OK, so say the browns medical staff didn’t see the hit, clearly the officials did. They completely failed on their part of this thing. Yeah, I don’t buy the teams BS, but the officiating crew doesn’t come out of this smelling like a bed of roses either.

Just goes to show an independent party whose sole responsibility is to monitor potential concussions is needed. Obviously team medical staffs are too overwhelmed with injuries to effectively monitor the health of the players on the field.

It raises a fair point that would have to be addressed even if there is an independent neurologist on the sideline: Watching every player, every play, for a hit that concusses someone – who is going to do it? You can say the brain doc will, but what if he (or she) is already examining someone on the sidelines? How would that doc watch the QB, the linemen and the receiver doing a fly pattern?

“When the injury took place on the field, at that time the question came up, did the doctors see the impact on the play? They did not. And our trainers did not,” Holmgren said. “They were all working, as is typical in a game. They were working on other injured players in the bench area or behind players. So they did not see the play. They heard the crowd reaction, someone said, ‘Colt’s down.’”

This is ridiculous. Of course the training staff were working on other things. It’s not their job to monitor the quarterback all day.

The coaches, however, saw their starting QB get rocked in the head. It’s on them to mention that to their staff.

Holmgren was a very good coach, helped make Favre who he was. But he wasn’t a good GM in Seattle, and why he had to bring in Ted Thompson from Green Bay (who eventually went back as GM in GB) as an assistant. And now if this is his M.O. as a president, I think H.C. is his high water mark of competency.

His version of the West Coast Offense worked in both GB and Seattle, Reid took it out to Phillie and has had a measure of success, and it even pinged back into the NFC North in Minnesota (the 2009 Viking offense was about as close to the Holmgren scheme I’ve seen since Holmgren left GB). It wasn’t until Favre decided to “simplify” and crack out the Favreball that things went down hill for the Vikings at the end of 2009 and all of 2010.

I almost fell off the couch when Ben drew that flag. He never benefits from those calls. However, I do agree with Taylor that he shouldn’t be fined, although he should be glad it wasn’t against Brady–the fine would have been higher.

I do have one question for Taylor. When you were voting for he new CBA, one of the issues was Goodells sole ability to suspend and fine players. You voted for it, so really, you shouldn’t complain about something you agreed to.

It was the Browns fans that were to blame. We are also to blame for dropped passes and bad snacks we are to blame for bad snaps. We are to blame for following a lousy team…. Mike Holmgren sucker punched the fans and media and threatened that any criticism of the the team we will not get playoff tickets…. What playoffs? We never been to the playoffs except one time in 2002. We need a credible owner until then we are the clowns in Randy Lerner’s circus….

So if the league is really that concerned with player safety , how about some fines/suspensions for a clearly negligent case like this? WHen I saw Seneca Walalce replaced by McCoy, I immediately placed a bet against a TD not happening. McCoy’s eyes looked so glazed, it was too obvious to ignore. Browns management is garbage.

How did their medical staff not see the hit? McCoy is only their starting QB. Even if medical personnel didn’t see the hit, they should have been alerted by one of the 100 Browns employees who did…saying they didn’t see it and saying that he only complained about hand pain is a terrible excuse. I am myself a physician, and it doesn’t take a genius practitioner to understand that as a medical professional, it is your job to determine the state of your patient…not the job of the patient to tell you what’s going on.

No headache that day. None the next day. None the next day. None the next day. None the next day. None the next day until on the way home from work. Then a MONSTER, pulsing, headache hit, and lasted, continuously, for 12 days. Then it let up for a while, came back, let up, came back, let up – you get the idea.

The day of the accident, there was a ruptured gas tank in one of the vehicles, and gasoline was flowing down the street. I saw it, warned people to not have a lit match and/or cigarette in the area, then (while standing next to the flowing gasoline), I promptly lit a cigarette. And even then, I was not diagnosed with a concussion until a couple of weeks after the accident.

Unless and until you have a concussion, you have NO idea what it is like. Just as no one who has never experienced a broken bone can understand the pain. Or an appendectomy. Or a kidney stone.

And no one who has not experienced blindness, or been around someone who has total blindness, can even begin to understand blindness.

The old saying used to be “Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.” Maybe it should be updated to “Don’t pooh-pooh it until you’ve actually experienced it.”